MADRID  – After Spain recognised Palestinian statehood, Pedro Sanchez met with his Palestinian counterpart, Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, and leading officials from several Middle Eastern countries in Madrid.

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and the foreign ministers of Turkey and Jordan were among the group that later posed for a photo on the steps of the Moncloa Palace in the Spanish capital. “On behalf of President [Mahmoud] Abbas and the government of Palestine, the people of Palestine, we warmly welcome Spain’s recognition of the state of Palestine,” Mustafa said of Spain’s historic move. “This recognition strengthens our resolve to continue our struggle for a just and lasting peace.”

Ireland, Norway and Slovenia have also joined Spain in the push that has been roundly condemned by Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz sent a furious direct message addressed to Sanchez on X, writing: “Hamas thanks you for your service,” along with a 17-second video that flipped between images of flamenco dancers and apparent scenes of the Palestinian group’s incursion into southern Israel on October 7. He has accused Spain of complicity “in inciting genocide against Jews and war crimes” and called Spain’s deputy prime minister, Yolanda Diaz, anti-Semitic after she closed a speech with the pro-Palestinian slogan “From the river to the sea”. Widely used at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, the slogan refers to the British mandate borders of Palestine, which stretched from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean before Israel was created in 1948. (Al Jazeera)…[+]